Amigas and Amichs: Prostitute-Concubines, Strategic Coupling, and Laboring-Class Masculinity in Late Medieval Valencia and the Mediterranean

Abstract

This article illuminates the experiences of prostitute-concubines in late medieval Valencia and the Mediterranean. It addresses their economic and affective relationships with amichs and argues that the temporary concubinary union between a prostitute and a low-status man, often a foreigner or itinerant laborer, was important to the gender identity of men at the lower levels of medieval society. Our analysis shows that patrician men who comprised the Consell de Valencia worked to denigrate the manhood of poor and laboring men through the criminalization of these short-term relationships.